Contact Numbers

Role

The Library's role is to support evidenced based clinical practice and the learning, research and teaching needs of the staff of the Mercy University Hospital as well as students on placement. It attempts to do this by providing access to:

an area and facilities conducive to study and research

access to print and electronic information resources both locally and remotely

Catalogue

Library Resources

Print Resources

Books: The Library has a growing collection of books, covering most medical, surgical, nursing and allied health subject areas. Particular emphasis is placed on the clinical areas in which the Mercy University Hospital specialises. Other subject areas covered include Philosophy, Ethics, Sociology, Economics, Law, History, Business and Management. The library attempts, within the confines of the budget, to keep the book stock as up-to-date as possible. The books are on open access and are classified according to the Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme. Click here to access the Library Catalogue

Journals: The Library has a large collection of print journals. There are long runs of some of the core medical journals, such as the BMJ, the Lancet and the NEJM, going back to the seventies. The journals are shelved in alphabetical order according to title.

Electronic Resources

UpToDate

UpToDate is a clinical decision support resource which helps clinicians to make the right point-of-care decisions. A rigorous editorial process is used to synthesize the most recent medical information into trusted, evidence-based recommendations.

Medline

MEDLINE® is a bibliographic database produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The database contains millions of citations, derived from thousands of biomedical and life science journals, and indexed with Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®) from the NLM controlled vocabulary. Extending back to 1946, annual input now exceeds 700,000 citations.

PubMed

PubMed is the most popular and comprehensive database for searching the biomedical literature. It provides access to over 25 million citations from medical, nursing, and life science journals. Full-text is available for some of the references.

The Cochrane Library

The Cochrane Library contains high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. It includes reliable evidence from Cochrane and other systematic reviews, clinical trials, and more. Cochrane reviews bring you the combined results of the world’s best medical research studies, and are recognised as the gold standard in evidence-based health care.

PEDro(Physiotherapy)

PEDro is the Physiotherapy Evidence Database. It has been developed to give rapid access to bibliographic details and abstracts of randomised controlled trials, systematic reviews and evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy. Most trials on the database have been rated for quality to help you quickly discriminate between trials which are likely to be valid and interpretable and those which are not.

OTseeker(Occupational Therapy)

OTseeker is a database that contains abstracts of systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials relevant to occupational therapy. Trials have been critically appraised and rated to assist you to evaluate their validity and interpretability. These ratings will help you to judge the quality and usefulness of trials for informing clinical interventions. In one database, OTseeker provides you with fast and easy access to trials from a wide range of sources.

NHS Evidence

Excellent new service whose aim is to provide easy access to a comprehensive evidence base for everyone in health and social care who takes decisions about treatments or the use of resources – including clinicians, public health professionals, and service managers – thus improving health and patient care.

Clinical Guidelines:

National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) Guidelines

The National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC) is a public resource for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. NGC is an initiative of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Department of Health and Children

Full-text access to all DoHC publications listed by year of publication.

Bibliographic Databases: The Library provides access to the main medical and nursing bibliographic databases, including PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsychLit and The Cochrane Library.

Online Journals: The Library provides access to over 5000 full-text online health sciences journals via ProQuest Hospital Collection. This resource may be accessed freely from all Internet PCs in MUH. Hundreds of more full-text online journals may be accessed from resources accessible from the Library only.

MultiMedia: There is a small collection of videos and DVDs in the Library. A large collection of training videos are available online via ProQuest Hospital Collection

Services and Facilities

Borrowing Facilities

A maximum of six books may be borrowed for a maximum period of two weeks. Journals may not be borrowed.

ICT (Information Communication Technology) Facilities

PCs At present there are 13 PCs with all the requisite software, full Internet access, memory stick compatible, and networked printing.

Scanner A scanner is available for those wishing to scan documents.

Photocopying Facilities A Photocopier is available in the Library.

Study Facilities

A quiet atmosphere, conducive to reading and study, is promoted in the Library. A small group study room with PCs is also available.

Inter Library Loan Service (ILL)

Because of the huge number of health sciences journals published worldwide (over 5000) and because of the ever increasing costs involved, even the biggest libraries cannot hope to be able to subscribe to all of those published. At MUH a high priority is placed on acquiring requested items as speedily as possible. The hospital is part of a cooperative of almost eighty Irish health sciences libraries, which has a long established ILL service in operation. British and German document supply services are also used. Most items are now acquired within 24 hours.

Library and Information Skills Instruction (Information Literacy)

The Library provides courses of instruction in library and information seeking skills to small groups and individuals. This is an important part of the library's role within the hospital. It is particularly suited to those undertaking, or about to undertake, undergraduate or postgraduate courses or research projects. The library recommends refresher courses for those who have completed courses or carried out research in the past, as tools and resources are constantly evolving. The Library staff are always at hand to help those who are having library-related difficulties of any kind.

Health Sciences Libraries - General Information

Libraries, and in particular health sciences libraries, have experienced a period of quite fundamental change over the last ten years. These changes have come about primarily because of developments in information technology and telecommunications. Libraries are no longer seen as merely repositories for print-based books and journals but rather as means of access to information, regardless of where that information is held or in what format. Along with their more traditional role, today's healthcare libraries are expected to provide quick and efficient access to a range of online bibliographic databases, databases of systematic reviews, online journals and textbooks, and a vast array of other web-based resources. The adoption of evidence-based practice in medicine and nursing has also had a major influence on the way medical libraries operate today. More and more the Medical Library is playing a central role in acquiring the evidence on which clinicians make their decisions.

Coinciding with these developments has been the phenomenal growth in the amount of material being published in both print and electronic format worldwide. It has been the responsibility of librarians and information specialists to attempt to put some form of bibliographic order and control on all of this publishing activity. The professional librarian will have acquired the skills and expertise to retrieve the information the users' need, when they need it. Because the MUH is a teaching hospital, the Library is also required to support the learning and research needs of both undergraduate and postgraduate students. For all of these reasons, it is now widely accepted that a well-resourced Library is a fundamental requirement for any modern hospital service.